System and method for personalized add-on purchase

ABSTRACT

A system and method for identifying and promoting product items, in which current personal information of a consumer is used to identify and promote additional products items for purchase that have been specifically selected for the consumer at completion of a current order based upon current personal information of the consumer. The recommended product items may then be ordered with minimum additional effort on the part of the consumer, using information from the completed order. This results in a high likelihood of the recommended product items being of interest to, and therefore being purchased by, the consumer.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.14/321,328, filed on Jul. 1, 2014, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,565,615.The above-identified application is hereby incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

FIELD

Certain embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems andmethods for processing on-line purchases by consumers. Morespecifically, certain aspects of the present disclosure relate tosystems and methods for identifying and promoting product items, inwhich current personal information of a consumer is used to identify andpromote additional products items for purchase that have beenspecifically selected for the consumer at completion of a current orderbased upon current personal information of the consumer. The recommendedproduct items may then be ordered with minimum additional effort on thepart of the consumer using information from the completed order. Thisresults in a high likelihood of the recommended product items being ofinterest to, and therefore being purchased by the consumer.

BACKGROUND

Consumers placing product orders on-line typically select products foraddition to a “shopping cart.” Once all of the desired products havebeen identified and added to the “shopping cart,” the user may thenchoose to complete a “checkout” process, during which the consumerprovides information regarding order fulfillment and means of payment.The consumer then completes or places the order. Following completion ofthe order, the consumer typically receives information that confirmscompletion or placement of the order. The consumer typically mustcomplete the entire product selection and checkout process for eachgroup of product ordered.

Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditionalapproaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, throughcomparison of such systems with some aspects of the present disclosureas set forth in the remainder of the present application with referenceto the drawings.

BRIEF SUMMARY

A system and method in which current personal information of a consumeris used to identify and promote additional products items for purchase,in which current personal information of a consumer is used to identifyand promote additional products items for purchase that have beenspecifically selected for the consumer at completion of a current orderbased upon current personal information of the consumer, substantiallyas shown in and/or described in connection with at least one of thefigures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

These and other advantages, aspects and novel features of the presentdisclosure, as well as details of an illustrated embodiment thereof,will be more fully understood from the following description anddrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of exemplary computer network in which arepresentative embodiment of the present disclosure may be practiced.

FIGS. 2A-2D are a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method foridentifying and promoting products that, upon completion of consumerselection of items of a current order, have a high likelihood of beingof interest to the consumer and for which an order may be placed withminimum additional effort on the part of the consumer, in accordancewith a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3A is an illustration of a screen image of an exemplary orderconfirmation page showing a carousel displaying a group of four productsof a collection of products selected for recommendation to the consumerfor an “express purchase,” based on a number of factors includingpurchase history information of the consumer, in accordance with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 3B is an illustration of a screen image of an exemplary orderconfirmation page showing a carousel displaying a second set of fourproducts of the collection of products selected for recommendation tothe consumer, such as the product items recommended in the illustrationof FIG. 3A, in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a screen image of an exemplary orderconfirmation page showing a display of four products from which one of afirst product and two of a second product have been chosen for purchaseby the consumer from the products specifically selected forrecommendation to the consumer based on personal information for theconsumer, in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of a screen image of an exemplary orderconfirmation page displaying the product items selected by the consumerfrom a collection of product items specifically chosen forrecommendation to the consumer based on personal information of theconsumer, and the payment and fulfillment/delivery information, inaccordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of a screen image of an exemplary shippinginformation page showing the products that have been selected by theconsumer from the products chosen for recommendation to the consumer,and various shipping options, in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of a screen image of an exemplary shippinginformation page showing the speed of delivery options available for oneof the products selected by the consumer from the collection of productsselected for recommendation to the consumer, in accordance with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of a screen image of an exemplary shippinginformation page reflecting an update in delivery date and the cost ofshipping chosen for a product for which the consumer chose to change thefulfillment/delivery means, in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of a screen image of an exemplary order reviewpage showing the products selected by the consumer, the change in userchoice of a delivery/fulfillment for one of the selected products, and a“Place order” button that allows placement of an order for theadditional products items selected by the consumer from the recommendedproducts, in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 shows a screen image of an exemplary order confirmation pageillustrating a carousel displaying product information for a set of fourproducts chosen from a newly selected collection of products chosen forrecommendation to the consumer based on updated personal information ofthe consumer such as, for example, their most recent purchase historyfollowing the placing of an “express purchase,” in accordance with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of a screen image of an exemplary orderreview page showing a security pop-up window requiring confirmation ofpayment means and payment validation code/PIN information, followingexpiration of a period of time of consumer inactivity since the priororder was placed during this online session, in accordance with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 12 is an illustration of a screen image of an exemplary orderreview page showing a security pop-up window requiring confirmation ofpayment means and payment validation code/PIN information, followingexpiration of a period of time of consumer inactivity since the priororder was placed during this online session, in accordance with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 13 is an illustration of a screen image of an exemplary orderreview page showing a pop-up window requesting confirmation of a userrequest to cancel the current order, in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating a personal electronic devicethat may correspond, for example, to electronic devices shown in FIG. 1,in accordance with a representative embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to systems and methods forprocessing on-line purchases by consumers. More specifically, certainaspects of the present disclosure relate to systems and methods foridentifying and promoting product items, in which current personalinformation of a consumer is used to identify and promote additionalproducts items for purchase that have been specifically selected for theconsumer at completion of a current order based upon current personalinformation of the consumer. The recommended product items may then beordered with minimum additional effort on the part of the consumer,using information from the completed order. This results in a highlikelihood of the recommended product items being of interest to, andtherefore being purchased by the consumer.

The following description of example methods and apparatus is notintended to limit the scope of the description to the precise form orforms detailed herein. Instead the following description is intended tobe illustrative so that others may follow its teachings.

In the following discussion, the terms “customer service agent” and“sales associate” may be used herein interchangeably to refer to anemployee or other individual who provides product and/or sales relatedassistance to customers of a business. The sales associate or customerservice agent may be, by way of example and not limitation, an expert,question and answer provider, merchandise associate, etc.

The terms “customer,” “consumer,” “end-user,” and “user” may be usedherein interchangeably to refer to a potential or existing purchaser ofproducts and/or services of a business.

The term “loyalty program” may be used herein to refer to a structuredmarketing effort that rewards, and therefore encourages, loyal buyingbehavior that is potentially beneficial to the business or firmoperating or sponsoring the loyalty program. The term “member” may beused herein to refer to those consumers that have provided personalinformation to an operator or sponsor of a loyalty program in order togain access to benefits provided by the loyalty program.

The term “tag” may be used herein to refer to a label (e.g., a string ofcharacters) attached to or associated with someone or something for thepurpose of identification or to give other information (e.g.,characteristics of the person or thing, category to which the person orthing belongs, a relationship to other persons or things).

As utilized herein, the terms “exemplary” or “example” means serving asa non-limiting example, instance, or illustration. As utilized herein,the term “e.g.” introduces a list of one or more non-limiting examples,instances, or illustrations.

The disclosed methods and systems may be part of an overall shoppingexperience system created to enhance the consumer shopping event. Forexample, the disclosed system may be integrated with the customer'sreward system, the customer's social network (e.g., the customer canpost their shopping activity conducted through the system to theirsocial network), the customer's expert system, digital/mobileapplications, shopping history, wish list, location, merchandiseselections, or the like. However, the system disclosed may be fullyand/or partially integrated with any suitable shopping system asdesired, including those not mentioned and/or later designed.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of exemplary computer network in which arepresentative embodiment of the present disclosure may be practiced.The following discloses various example systems and methods for, by wayof example and not limitation, engaging consumers in a consumer gameexperience that isolates member preferences and fills in the socialgraph of the consumer, to aid in the targeting of various forms ofcontent to the consumer. Referring now to FIG. 1, a processing device20″, illustrated in the exemplary form of a mobile communication device,a processing device 20′, illustrated in the exemplary form of a computersystem, and a processing device 20 illustrated in schematic form, areshown. Each of these devices 20, 20′, 20″ are provided with executableinstructions to, for example, provide a means for a customer, e.g., auser, a customer or consumer, etc., or a sales associate, a customerservice agent, and/or others to access a host system 68 and, among otherthings, be connected to a content management system, an electronicpublication system, a hosted social networking site, a user profile, astore directory, and/or a sales associate. Generally, the computerexecutable instructions reside in program modules which may includeroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. thatperform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.Accordingly, the processing devices 20, 20′, 20″ illustrated in FIG. 1may be embodied in any device having the ability to execute instructionssuch as, by way of example, a personal computer, mainframe computer,personal-digital assistant (“PDA”), cellular telephone, tablet,e-reader, smart phone, or the like. Furthermore, while described andillustrated in the context of a single processing device 20, 20′, 20″,the various tasks described hereinafter may be practiced in adistributed environment having multiple processing devices linked via alocal or wide-area network whereby the executable instructions may beassociated with and/or executed by one or more of multiple processingdevices.

For performing the various tasks in accordance with the executableinstructions, the example processing device 20 includes a processingunit 22 and a system memory 24 which may be linked via a bus 26. Withoutlimitation, the bus 26 may be a memory bus, a peripheral bus, and/or alocal bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. As needed for anyparticular purpose, the system memory 24 may include read only memory(ROM) 28 and/or random access memory (RAM) 30. Additional memory devicesmay also be made accessible to the processing device 20 by means of, forexample, a hard disk drive interface 32, a magnetic disk drive interface34, and/or an optical disk drive interface 36. As will be understood,these devices, which would be linked to the system bus 26, respectivelyallow for reading from and writing to a hard disk 38, reading from orwriting to a removable magnetic disk 40, and for reading from or writingto a removable optical disk 42, such as a CD/DVD ROM or other opticalmedia. The drive interfaces and their associated computer-readable mediaallow for the nonvolatile storage of computer-readable instructions,data structures, program modules and other data for the processingdevice 20. Other types of non-transitory computer-readable media thatcan store data and/or instructions may be used for this same purpose.Examples of such media devices include, but are not limited to, magneticcassettes, flash memory cards, digital videodisks, Bernoulli cartridges,random access memories, nano-drives, memory sticks, and other read/writeand/or read-only memories.

A number of program modules may be stored in one or more of thememory/media devices. For example, a basic input/output system (BIOS)44, containing the basic routines that help to transfer informationbetween elements within the processing device 20, such as duringstart-up, may be stored in ROM 28. Similarly, the RAM 30, hard drive 38,and/or peripheral memory devices may be used to store computerexecutable instructions comprising an operating system 46, one or moreapplications programs 48 (such as a Web browser), other program modules50, and/or program data 52. Still further, computer-executableinstructions may be downloaded to one or more of the computing devicesas needed, for example via a network connection.

To allow a user to enter commands and information into the processingdevice 20, input devices such as a keyboard 54 and/or a pointing device56 are provided. While not illustrated, other input devices may includea microphone, a joystick, a game pad, a scanner, a camera, touchpad,touch screen, etc. These and other input devices are typically connectedto the processing unit 22 by means of an interface 58 which, in turn, iscoupled to the bus 26. Input devices may be connected to the processor22 using interfaces such as, for example, a parallel port, game port,FireWire, or a universal serial bus (USB). To view information from theprocessing device 20, a monitor 60 or other type of display device mayalso be connected to the bus 26 via an interface, such as a videoadapter 62. In addition to the monitor 60, the processing device 20 mayalso include other peripheral output devices, not shown, such as, forexample, speakers, cameras, printers, or other suitable device.

As noted, the processing device 20 may also utilize logical connectionsto one or more remote processing devices, such as the host system 68having associated data repository 68A. In this regard, while the hostsystem 68 has been illustrated in the exemplary form of a computer, thehost system 68 may, like processing device 20, be any type of devicehaving processing capabilities. Again, the host system 68 need not beimplemented as a single device but may be implemented in a manner suchthat the tasks performed by the host system 68 are distributed amongst aplurality of processing devices/databases located at differentgeographical locations and linked through a communication network.Additionally, the host system 68 may have logical connections to otherthird party systems via a network 12, such as, for example, theInternet, LAN, MAN, WAN, cellular network, cloud network, enterprisenetwork, virtual private network, wired and/or wireless network, orother suitable network, and via such connections, will be associatedwith data repositories that are associated with such other third partysystems. Such third party systems may include, without limitation,systems of banking, credit, or other financial institutions, systems ofthird party providers of goods and/or services, systems ofshipping/delivery companies, media content providers, document storagesystems, etc.

For performing tasks as needed, the host system 68 may include many orall of the elements described above relative to the processing device20. In addition, the host system 68 would generally include executableinstructions for, among other things, identifying and recommendingproduct items, coordinating storage and retrieval of documents;maintaining social network storage of a shopping list; receiving alocation of a customer via a mobile device; maintaining maps and layoutsof buildings and geographic areas; calculating directions or routeswithin buildings and geographic areas; searching, retrieving, andanalyzing web-based content; managing operating rules and communicationwith user devices used by participants in a multiplayer consumer game,for receiving a request for a service call center connection from eithera customer or a sales associate; routing a received request via adistributed mobile video call center; and providing a service callinfrastructure for providing the requestor with a distributed customerservice experience.

Communications between the processing device 20 and the host system 68may be exchanged via a further processing device, such as a networkrouter (not shown), that is responsible for network routing.Communications with the network router may be performed via a networkinterface component 73. Thus, within such a networked environment, e.g.,the Internet, World Wide Web, LAN, cloud, or other like type of wired orwireless network, program modules depicted relative to the processingdevice 20, or portions thereof, may be stored in the non-transitorycomputer-readable memory storage device(s) of the host system 68 andprocessing devices 20, 20′ and 20″.

A representative embodiment of the present disclosure may be seen in asystem or method for identifying and promoting product items, in whichcurrent personal information of a consumer is used to identify andpromote additional products items for purchase that have beenspecifically selected for the consumer at completion of a current orderbased upon current personal information of the consumer. The recommendedproduct items may then be ordered with minimum additional effort on thepart of the consumer, using information from the completed order. Thisresults in a high likelihood of the recommended product items being ofinterest to, and therefore being purchased by the consumer, as furtherdescribed below.

A representative embodiment of the present disclosure may be employed aspart of a shopping and purchase activity of a consumer using an improvedversion of what may be referred to as a “shopping cart model.” Forexample, while shopping at the web site of an online merchant, aconsumer may select products from those items available from themerchant or its business partner(s), and may add various items to the“shopping cart.” At some point, the consumer will have added to theshopping cart all of the product items that they wish to purchase, andthey may then choose to begin the process of “check out.” During the“check-out” process, the consumer may be asked to choose from a numberof payments means including, by way of example and not limitation, theuse of a credit or debit card; the use of electronic funds transfer(EFT) from a bank or credit union savings or checking account; the useof a secure electronic payment intermediary such as, for example, aPayPal® account; or any form of payment suitable for use with onlinepurchases available now or in the future.

As part of the “check out” process, the consumer may also be asked tochoose from a number of fulfillment options including, by way of exampleand not limitation, “pick-up at store;” “ship-to-store;” “ship-to-dropbox,” ship via a postal service (e.g., United States Postal Service(USPS)); ship via a commercial air or ground parcel delivery service(e.g., United Parcel Service (UPS), DHL, FedEx), or ship via acommercial transport service (e.g., short or long haul truck) forbulkier items. Depending upon the items selected for purchase by theconsumer, not all fulfillment means may be available. For example, someproduct items may be available for pick-up at a nearby location of themerchant or business partner, and some items may not be suitable forshipment by postal carrier but may be transportable by a commercialparcel service. Once the fulfillment means has been selected, theconsumer may be requested to provide a suitable address to which theselected items are to be delivered.

Once all of the information needed for payment and order fulfillmenthave been collected from the consumer, the consumer may then choose tocomplete the ordering process by selecting/clicking-on a user interfaceelement such as, for example, a “place order” or similar button or linkthat indicates a desire by the consumer to complete the purchase of theselected items using the user-selected fulfillment and payment options.

In a representative embodiment of the present disclosure, a system suchas, for example, the host system 68 of FIG. 1 may then perform a processof identifying additional product items that have a high likelihood ofbeing of interest to, and therefore a high likelihood of purchase by theconsumer that just placed their order. The process of identifying suchadditional product items may include, by way of example and notlimitation, the analysis of information representative of the contentsof the “shopping cart” for the order just placed by the consumer, theanalysis of personal information about the consumer, and the analysis ofinformation representative of purchase selections or social networkingactivity of a group of consumers other than the consumer.

In a representative embodiment of the present disclosure, the analysisof the contents of a “shopping cart” of a consumer may take into accounta number of parameters including, by way of example and not limitation,information that identifies the specific product items selected forpurchase by the consumer in the most recent order, information aboutproducts available from the merchant or their business partner(s) thatare related to one another or that are frequently purchased together,and products that are currently “trending” or considered to be popularwith consumers as indicated by communication among member of a socialnetwork.

In a representative embodiment of the present disclosure, theidentification of additional product or service items that have a highlikelihood of being of interest to, and therefore a high likelihood ofpurchase by the consumer may include the analysis of personalinformation gathered and maintained by the merchant in a profile for theconsumer. Such a profile may include, for example, the personal purchaseand/or shopping history of the consumer gathered from the shoppingactivities of the consumer on the web site of the merchant and itsbusiness partners, or at “in-store” locations of the merchant and itsbusiness partners. The profile may also include personal informationabout the consumer collected using polls, questionnaires, and variousother approaches employed by the merchant and its partners to gatherinformation about the consumer. Such approaches may be either explicit,as in the use of questionnaires in which the consumer self-identifies,by way of example and not limitation, their manufacturer, brand, model,designer, style, color, or other product preferences, or the personalinformation may be derived from observations of consumer shoppingbehavior including social indications such as, for example, expressionsof feeling or relationships with products such as “Like,” “Want,” and“Have/Own,” and recommendations and comments posted by the consumer on asocial e-commerce system operated or sponsored by the merchant or itspartners.

In a representative embodiment of the present disclosure, theinformation about the preferences of a consumer may be derived fromobservations of the behavior of the consumer when shopping online orin-store. By way of example and not limitation, a consumer may performan online search for a given product item such as a particular articleof clothing (e.g., a white silk blouse in size medium), a particulartool (e.g., a crosscut hand saw), or a particular personal care product(e.g., a particular conditioner for dry hair). The search resultsprovided to the consumer may include several different brands of theparticular item identified by the consumer. The user may then select“Brand X” from the array of choices for the particular product item, toadd to their shopping cart. Information about the occurrence of theconsumer choice of “Brand X” may be recorded in the personal informationof the profile of the consumer. Upon the occurrence of a certain numberof selections of, by way of example and not limitation, a specificbrand, style, scent, color, designer, manufacturer, or model of productitems by the consumer, a system in accordance with the presentdisclosure may record a preference for the specific brand, style, scent,color, designer, manufacturer, or model selected by the consumer in thepersonal information of the profile of the consumer. In a similarfashion, preference information may be derived from social indicationsselected or expressed by a consumer such as, by way of illustration andnot limitation, consumer selection of icons indicating “Like,” “Want,”“Have,” “Own,” “thumbs-up,” “plus,” or “+1,” to name only a fewexamples.

Preference information may also be derived based upon online shoppingactivities such as, by way of example and not limitation, the number ofconsumer page views of particular products, brands, styles, designers,manufacturers, or models. Observations of the shopping behavior of aconsumer may be made both while online at home using a personalcomputer, at an in-store location of a merchant or business partner ofthe merchant, or at any location using a mobile device online. Arepresentative embodiment of the present disclosure may integrateobservations made in various shopping and purchase venues to derivepersonal preference information for a consumer. For example, suchobservations may include those communicated to a system of the presentdisclosure from a mobile application of an electronic device used by theconsumer to optically scan a barcode, two-dimensional code, or otherform of indicia, or wireless capture a code from a radio frequencyidentification (RFID) device, using any suitable technology known now orin the future.

In a representative embodiment of the present disclosure, the analysisof information representative of purchase selections or socialnetworking activity of a group of consumers other than the consumer maybe based on observations collected by monitoring a group of consumerssuch as, for example, the population of consumers shopping on a web siteor at in-store locations of a merchant and its business partner(s), orat other web sites operated by those other than the merchant and itsbusiness partner(s). The analysis may take into account the purchases,preferences, and social indications of product interest of variousconsumers including, for example, those that have chosen to becomemembers of a loyalty program of the merchant(s) operating or sponsoringthe web site on which the consumer is shopping. Information about thepurchases of the consumers may be collected from transactions performedat point-of-sale (POS) terminals at business locations of the merchantand their business partner(s), and at kiosks located within businesslocations of the merchant or partner(s) or located in public venues. Theinformation about purchases may also be collected from transactionprocessing systems that handle on-line (e.g., Internet-based) shoppingactivities and purchases by members of the group of consumers.

The analysis performed by a representative embodiment of the presentdisclosure may identify a collection of a number of product items thatmay be of interest to, and therefore have a higher than averagelikelihood of purchase by the consumer, and may apply one or morefilters to the collection of product items and/or services likely to beof interest to the consumer. As part of that analysis process, each ofthe items in the collection may be assigned a level or rank of likelyinterest to, or probability of purchase by, the consumer. A subset ofthe collection made up of a particular number of the product or serviceitems in the collection may be selected for promotion to the consumer,in order of decreasing level of interest or likelihood of purchase bythe consumer. The product items identified a being of interest to theconsumer may be then be recommended to the consumer by arranging them ina display, based upon various criteria or filters.

For example, in some representative embodiment of the disclosure, theproduct items identified for the consumer may be selected for displaybased upon the level or rank of likelihood of interest by the consumer,and/or based upon the profit margin for the item. The product items maybe selected for display based on whether a particular item is availablefor purchase and fulfillment using the payment and fulfillment meansselected by the consumer for an order just completed by the consumer. Ina representative embodiment of the present disclosure, the productitem(s) selected for promotion to the consumer may be displayed in anyof a number of ways including, by way of example and not limitation, asa carousel of product information such as that shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B,discussed in further detail, below. In response to the display of suchproduct information, the consumer may select one or more items, and maybe enabled to complete the purchase with minimum effort, through the useof payment and fulfillment information provided by the consumer, forexample, while completing a previously order.

FIGS. 2A-2D are a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method foridentifying and promoting products that, upon completion of consumerselection of items of a current order, have a high likelihood of beingof interest to the consumer and for which an order may be placed withminimum additional effort on the part of the consumer, in accordancewith a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. Thefollowing discussion of the various actions described in FIGS. 2A-2D maybe performed by various elements of the system described above withrespect to FIG. 1. For example, in some representative embodiments ofthe present disclosure, the actions of the various portions of FIGS.2A-2D may be performed by a system such as the host system 68communicating via a network with a browser application running on a userdevice such as, for example, any of processing devices 20, 20′, 20″ ofFIG. 1. In another representative embodiment of the present disclosure,portions of the actions described with respect to FIGS. 2A-2D may beperformed by what may be referred to herein as an application, “app,” or“mobile app” installed on a user device (e.g., one of processing devices20, 20′, 20″ of FIG. 1) by the user, while other portions of the actionsof FIGS. 2A-2D may be performed by one or more processors of otherelement of a system such as that shown in FIG. 1.

The method of FIGS. 2A-2D begins at block 202 of FIG. 2A, where a systemsuch as the host system 68 of FIG. 1 enables a user to shop for productitems using a browser or other software application of a device such asone of the processing devices 20, 20′, 20″ of FIG. 1. Shopping by theuser may occur when, for example, a user of a user device such as, byway of example and not limitation, a cell phone; a smart phone; atablet, laptop, or desktop computer; or a media player, uses a softwareapplication or “app” to interact with the host system 68 via acommunication network such as, for example, the Internet. In someinstances, the use of such an application may be limited to consumersthat are member of a loyalty program operated by or for the merchantthat operates or sponsors the host system 68 of FIG. 1. The user may, atblock 204, select one or more product items and place those items in anelectronic or virtual “shopping cart” that maintains information aboutthe selected items for the user. In the example of FIG. 2A, adetermination is made, at block 206, as to whether the user has chosento proceed to “checkout,” to complete the purchase of the selecteditems. If the user has not chosen to “checkout,” the method of FIG. 2Amay proceed to determine, at block 208, whether the user has abandonedtheir “shopping cart” by, for example, leaving the web site of themerchant, or by lack of shopping activity for at least a certainduration of time. If, at block 208, the system performing the methoddetermines that the user has not abandoned their “shopping cart,” themethod of FIG. 2A returns to block 202, allowing the user to continuetheir shopping activity. If, however, the system determines, at block208, that the user did abandon their “shopping cart,” the method ofFIGS. 2A-2D ends.

If, at block 206, it is determined that the user has chosen to“checkout,” the system may, at block 210, determine the relationship ofthe user to the merchant operating or sponsoring the system. In theexample of FIGS. 2A-2D, the user may be asked to identify themselves asa “new customer,” a “returning customer,” or a member of a “loyaltyprogram” in which the user may receive particular benefits (e.g.,discounts, rewards, special promotions, rebates, or other monetary ornon-monetary benefits). The user may, for example, self-identify byentering their email address, by clicking on/selecting a button thatindicates their relationship to the merchant, by “logging in,” or by anyother suitable means. If, at block 210, it is determined that the useris a “new customer,” the method of FIG. 2A may proceed to block 212,where they are asked to provide their email address, and continue on toblock 214, at which the user may be asked to provide fulfillmentinformation (e.g., shipping/delivery/pickup address, shippingmeans/speed), to enable fulfillment of their present and/or futureorder(s). The method then passes to block 220, described below.

If, at block 206, the system determines that the user is a “returningcustomer,” the system may access stored information that was collectedfrom the user during an earlier purchase transaction or encounter of theuser with the merchant (e.g., credit card application, request forinformation). Such information may be maintained, for example, in apersistent data store such as the data repository 68A of FIG. 1. Thestored information about the user may then be used to pre-populate emailand fulfillment/delivery information in any forms/screens/pages normallyused to prepare an order for placement. The method of FIG. 2A may thencontinue at block 220, described below.

The system may determine, at block 206, that the user is a “loyaltyprogram member. In that instance, the method of FIG. 2A may access a“member profile” containing information collected from various usertransactions with the merchant operating or sponsoring the system, orbusiness partners such as other businesses that have entered intoagreements with the merchant to share information and benefits, forexample, their collective loyalty club members. Such a “member profile”may include, by way of example and not limitation, the user's age, anydemonstrated (e.g., from web browsing history) or expressed (e.g., fromconsumer questionnaires) product category interests, a life-stage of theuser (e.g., college student, newly-wed, parent, elderly or retired,home-owner, etc.), user purchase history, basic needs, aspirationalgoals, delight, and satisfaction. Such personal information may bestored in a persistent data store such as the data repository 68A ofFIG. 1. The stored information about the user may then be used topre-populate email and fulfillment/delivery information in anyforms/screens/pages normally used to prepare an order for fulfillment.The system may then continue at block 220.

Next, at block 220, the method may direct the system to collectinformation about the means to be used by the consumer in payment forthe selected product items. Depending upon the relationship of the userto the merchant and/or their partners, such information may be presentin the personal information of the user maintained by the system, andthe user may be prompted to review and/or enter such information. Then,at block 222, the system performing the method of FIG. 2A may display,for example, an order summary detailing the user-selected product items,fulfillment and payment information, and other parameters to the userfor review and confirmation before order placement. The method of FIGS.2A-2D then continues at block 224 of FIG. 2B.

At block 224, a determination is made as to whether the user has chosento revise their order, place their order, or abandon/cancel their order.If the user chooses to revise their order, the system continues at block226, where the user is permitted to make various changes to thecollection of selected product items, the fulfillment details, andpayment information. If the user chooses to abandon or cancel theirorder, the method of FIGS. 2A-2D ends. If, however, the user chooses to“place” their order, the method of FIG. 2B continues at block 228, wherethe method releases the product items in their “shopping cart” forfulfillment using the fulfillment/shipping/pickup means, the form ofpayment, and other similar order details provided by the user, oraccessed in the personal information for the user that is maintained bythe system. The total amount of the order is also charged to the form ofpayment selected by the user. Then, at block 230, the method may recordorder details including, by way of example and not limitation, the timeof order placement, the items purchased, the fulfillment/shipping/pickupdetails, and any other suitable information about the order. Suchinformation may, for example, be included in the personal profile forthe user. In addition, the system performing the method of FIG. 2B maystart an “activity timer,” to be used in the manner described below withrespect to block 251.

Next, at block 232, a determination is made as to whether the items inthe “shopping cart” meet requirements for what may be referred to hereinas an “express purchase,” “express order,” “add-on purchase,” “add-onorder,” and/or “follow-on order.” The requirements for such an “add-on”order may include, by way of example and not limitation, that at leastone item in the “shopping cart” be a physical product. That is, in somerepresentative embodiments of the disclosure, the system may not offerthe user the opportunity to place an “add-on” order if the items in the“shopping cart” include only items such as a service contract, or a giftcertificate. If that is the case, the method of FIG. 2B ends, and theinteraction with the user with regard to placement of an “add-on,”“express,” or “follow-on” order ends. If the items in the “shoppingcart” do meet the requirements for an “add-on,” “express,” or“follow-on” order, the method continues at block 234.

At block 234, the method uses the information about the items in the“shopping cart;” personal information about the user that is maintainedby a system such as, for example, the host system 68 on the datarepository 68A; and a set of business rules, to identify a collection ofadditional, product items that are likely to be of interest to, andtherefore likely to be purchased by the user. Such items make beselected by the system because they are related to items in the orderjust placed, or to past purchases by the user, by way of example and notlimitation, attachments, accessories, and/or add-ons for a previouslypurchased tool, appliance or clothing ensemble. In some representativeembodiments, the selected product items may only be selected if they are“in-stock” items. The additional product items may also be items thatmay be used in work or hobby activities in association with a tool orappliance in the “shopping cart” of the order just placed, or somethingpreviously purchased, and may include consumables such as batteries,fuel, filters, ink/toner, disposable diapers, cleaning products, and/orpersonal care products that the user has currently or previouslypurchased, and/or replacement parts known to be subject to wear for adevice, tool, or system product just purchased, or purchased in thepast.

In a representative embodiment of the present disclosure, the analysisof the personal information of the user may recognize patterns inpurchase behavior such as, by way of illustration and not limitation,that Mr. Smith buys 2 cans of Regal shaving créme every month, and mayrecommend Regal shaving créme because 28 days have passed since his lastpurchase of Regal shaving créme. The additional product items selectedfor the user may be chosen based upon a match or close association ofone or more “tags” assigned to product items by the merchant, theirpartner(s), and/or other users, with “tags” or parameters associatedwith the user as recorded in the personal profile of the user. Inaddition, the additional items selected for the user may be selectedusing information about shopping behavior of or product purchases byother users/consumers that are similar to the user in terms of theirpurchase history, their interests, their preferences, their taste,and/or their stage in life (by way of example and not limitation, thosethat are single, engaged, married, expecting a child, have teenagechildren, are retired, have one or more pets, an individual that likesto “do-it-yourself,” someone that likes to sew, and/or a carenthusiast).

The system may then, at block 236, add items to the collection ofadditional items, based upon information about those product items thatare, for example, popular with, or experiencing growth in popularitywith, the users of the system, which may be referred to herein as“trending items.” Such information gathered by the system may be used,along with personal information about the user, and business rules ofthe merchant and/or their partners (e.g., rules related to means ofshipment involved in fulfillment and the preferred/historical means offulfillment of the user, number of a particular item in stock,availability of an item at the preferred merchant location of the user),to select further items to be added to the collection.

Next, at block 238, the system may analyze information about the itemsin the collection of items, and may rank order the items in order oflikelihood of purchase by the user. For example, the system may, foreach product item in the collection, calculate a value reflecting acombination of factors than influence the likelihood of purchase of theitem by this specific user. This may include factors such as, by way ofexample and not limitation, whether the user has purchased the same itemor items in the same family or type of product in the past; whether theuser has explicitly, or through their purchase history or interactionswith the merchant or their partner(s), indicated an interest orpreference for the designer and/or manufacturer of the item. The factorsused in the ranking may include, for example, whether other users thathave been determined to be similar to this specific user to a particulardegree or level (e.g., those having similar taste, similar purchasehistory, similar income, similar form of payment used, similar stage inlife, similar browsing/shopping history), that when offered items fromthe collection, went on to actually purchase the offered item. Uponcompletion of the ranking of the collection of items selected for theuser, the method may proceed to block 240 of FIG. 2C.

At block 240, the method of FIG. 2C may display an order confirmationscreen/page, confirming placement or completion of the order representedby the items in the “shopping cart,” and the fulfillment and paymentinformation provided by or for the user. The system performing themethod of FIGS. 2A-2D may then, at block 242, empty the items from thecurrent “shopping cart.” As noted above, a record of the items in thejust-placed order, and the associated order details, may be maintainedby a system such as the host system 68, for later reference. Next, atblock 244, the method of FIG. 2C may direct the system to display to theuser, information about a particular number of product items from theranked collection of items selected as being likely of interest to theuser. By way of example and not limitation, a representative embodimentof the present disclosure may display 3-10 of the items in the rankedcollection most likely to be of interest, and therefore most likely tobe purchased by the user. Information about each of the items may bedisplayed, for example, as a list of product name and prices; as anysuitable arrangement of boxes containing product details, picture(s),and pricing, or as a carousel or other mechanism that display a limited,but scrollable subset of the most likely items to be purchased by theuser. Each of the items displayed may have an associated button or otheruser interface element, to enable the user to add the associated productitem to an electronic “shopping cart” for what may be referred tointerchangeably herein as an “express purchase,” an “add-on purchase,”an “add-on order,” and/or a “follow-on order.”

Next, at block 246, a determination is made as to whether the user haschosen to add or remove an item from the displayed items to theelectronic “shopping cart” for an “express purchase,” an “add-onpurchase,” an “add-on order,” and/or a “follow-on order.” If it isdetermined that the user did choose to add an item to, or remove an itemfrom, the “shopping cart” then, at block 248, the user-identified one ofthe displayed product items may be add to, or removed from,respectively, the “shopping cart.” The method may then continue fromblock 206. If, however, the user did not choose to add or remove an itemto/from the “shopping cart,” then the method of FIG. 2C may move toblock 250, where a determination is made as to whether the user haschosen to proceed with what may be referred to herein as “expresscheckout” and purchase the selected additional items as an “expresspurchase,” “express order,” “add-on purchase,” “add-on order,” and/or“follow-on order,” or to abandon the merchant website and their reviewand consideration of the displayed items specifically selected by thesystem for this specific user. If it is determined that the userabandoned the merchant web site, the method of FIGS. 2A-2D ends.

If the user, at block 250, chooses to proceed to “express checkout,” themethod of the present disclosure may move to block 251, where adetermination is made as to whether the user activity timer, started atblock 230, has expired. The user activity timer may be used to helpdetermine whether the user has simply walked away from the user deviceon which the prior order was placed, or is taking a long period of timein making further choices from the merchant web site. If it isdetermined, at block 251, that the user activity timer has not expired,the method of FIG. 2C continues at block 253. If, however, it isdetermined that the user activity timer has expired, then the method, atblock 252, prompts the user to re-enter information to be used forvalidating the method of the payment used. For example, having placedtheir original order, the user may have no interest in the additionalproduct items that were specifically selected for them, and may fail to“logout” from the merchant or partner web site. Requesting entry of, byway of example and not limitation, a payment card code or personalidentification number (PIN), helps to avoid leaving the user deviceaccessible and unattended, and configured with the personal informationfor the user. Following user entry of the appropriate information forvalidating the method of payment used for the “express purchase,” an“add-on purchase,” an “add-on order,” and/or a “follow-on order,” themethod of FIG. 2C continues at block 253.

At block 253, the method may determine whether the items in the“shopping cart” for their “express purchase,” “express order,” “add-onpurchase,” “add-on order,” and/or “follow-on order” meet a set ofrequirements or rules for “express checkout.” In some representativeembodiments of the present disclosure, a product item may not beeligible for “express checkout” if it requires a different fulfillmentmeans such as, for example, if it cannot be delivered to the user viathe user-selected shipping/delivery means. In some representativeembodiments of the present disclosure, a product item may not beeligible for “express checkout” if the user chooses to change thedelivery/fulfillment mechanism (e.g., delivery by commercial groundservice, pickup at a preferred location of the merchant or partner, airshipment). If any item in the “shopping cart” is not eligible for“express checkout” using their selected means of orderdelivery/fulfillment, the method may proceed at block 254, where theuser may be asked to revise their delivery/fulfillment choice. Followinguser adjustment of the delivery/fulfillment information, the method ofFIG. 2C may continue at block 220, discussed above.

If, at block 253, it is determined that one or more items in the“shopping cart” are not eligible for “express checkout” because thoseitem(s) are “out-of-stock” from the merchant, then the method mayproceed at block 248, where the user may be notified that the“out-of-stock” item has been removed from their “shopping cart.” Thismay happen, for instance, where as item was “in-stock,” during earlierselection by the user but, due to demand or user delay in completing the“express purchase,” the merchant inventory of the selected item has beendepleted. The method of FIG. 2C may then proceed to block 206, describedabove. If, however, all of the items in the “shopping cart” meet therequirements or rules for “express checkout,” a screen/page may bedisplayed to the user showing details of their “express purchase,” foruser confirmation of the products items and the fulfillment and paymentinformation, which unless changed by the user may be the samefulfillment/delivery and payment information used for the prior orderplaced by the user. The method of FIG. 2C then proceeds to block 258 ofFIG. 2D.

At block 258 of FIG. 2D, a determination may be made as to whether theuser has chosen to revise or edit their “express purchase.” If it isdetermined that the user has chosen to make a change in the method ofpayment, the method of FIG. 2D may continue at block 262, and revise thepayment information associated with the “express purchase.” The methodmay then return to block 258. If it is determined that the user haschosen to may a change in fulfillment/delivery, the method of FIG. 2Dmay proceed at block 260, where the method enables the user to revisethe fulfillment/delivery information for their “express purchase.” If itis determined, at block 258, that the user has not chosen to changeeither the payment information or the fulfillment/delivery information,the method of FIG. 2D may proceed to block 264, where the systemperforming the method of FIG. 2D may prompt the user to provide anyvalidation information for the use of the payment means selected by theuser such as, for example, a payment card code (e.g., card verificationcode (CVV)) or PIN code. If, at block 266, the validation information isfound to be incorrect, the method returns to block 264, and the user isagain asked for the needed validation information. If, however, thepayment means validation information is correct, the method of FIG. 2Dcontinues at block 268.

At block 268, the system directed by the example method of FIGS. 2A-2Dreleases the “express purchase” for fulfillment using the user-selectedfulfillment/delivery means, and the total amount due to themerchant/partner is requested from the user-selected payment means.Next, at block 270, the method of FIG. 2D may direct a system such asthe host system 68 to record details of the “express purchase” inpersistent storage such as, for example, the data repository 68A of FIG.1, which may include updating such information in the purchase history,user fulfillment and payment preferences, user shopping behavior, andother aspects of the personal profile information of the user. Themethod of FIGS. 2A-2D then continues at block 232, described above.

FIG. 3A is an illustration of a screen image 300A of an exemplary orderconfirmation page showing a carousel displaying a group of four products312A, 312B, 312C, 312D of a collection of products selected forrecommendation to the consumer for an “express purchase,” based on anumber of factors including purchase history information of theconsumer, in accordance with the present disclosure. The screen image300A includes a carousel portion 310 for displaying product itemsspecifically selected for a consumer based upon various factorsincluding purchase history, shopping behavior, user preferences, andother personal information of the user. The carousel 310 shown in theexample of FIG. 3A includes four product portions 312A, 312B, 312C,312D, where each product portion includes a product image and anassociated brief product description, a product price, a purchasequantity box, and a “Add to cart” button, to enable the user to indicatea desired quantity of the identified product item to be added to the“shopping cart” for an “express purchase. The illustration of FIG. 3Aalso include an items indicator 318 that shows the total number of theproduct items that were specifically selected for recommendation to theuser, and those which the user has selected for purchase. The displayedfour product portions 312A, 312B, 312C, 312D may represent a subset of agreater number of product items of a collection specifically recommendedfor an “express purchase” by a user, based on personal information aboutpurchase behavior and personal preferences specific to the user.Additional product items from the collection of product items selectedfor recommendation to a user may be viewed using a “right arrow” 314. A“left arrow” (not shown) may be also displayed as the user moves amongthe displayed products, to enable the user to view any product itemspositioned to the left of the leftmost product item. The products shownmay be a certain number of the product items most likely to bechosen/purchased by a particular user, which have been selected from alarger collection of product items selected specifically forrecommendation to the particular user, as described above. The certainnumber of product items may be ordered on the display according to arank value calculated based on, by way of example and not limitation, ananalysis of information about the items in a collection of items, andthe order of the displayed items may be in order of likelihood ofpurchase by the user. As previously discussed above, a system inaccordance with the present disclosure may, for each product item in thecollection, calculate a value reflecting or representing a combinationof factors that influence the likelihood of purchase of the item by thisspecific user.

FIG. 3B is an illustration of a screen image 300B of an exemplary orderconfirmation page showing a carousel displaying a second set of fourproducts 312E, 312F, 312G, 312H of the collection of products selectedfor recommendation to the consumer, such as the product itemsrecommended in the illustration of FIG. 3A, in accordance with thepresent disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 3B, each of the productschosen for recommendation to the user may be represented in a separateproduct portion, where each product portion includes a product image andan associated brief product description, a product price, a purchasequantity box, and a “Add to cart” button, to enable the user to add adesired quantity of the identified product item to the “shopping cart”for an “express purchase. Other elements of FIG. 3B are also present anddiscussed with respect to FIG. 3A. In addition, a “left arrow” 316permits the user to explore the information for a certain number of theother product items of the collection of product items specificallyidentified for the user based on personal information, examples of whichwere discussed above with regard to block 234 of FIG. 2B.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a screen image 400 of an exemplary orderconfirmation page showing a display of four products from which one of afirst product 412A and two of a second product 412B have been chosen forpurchase by the consumer from the products specifically selected forrecommendation to the consumer based on personal information for theconsumer, in accordance with the present disclosure. As can be seen inFIG. 4, two of the product portions 412A, 412B show an overlay a labelof “selected,” following the user clicking on/selecting an “Add to cart”button of products recommended to them, such as the “Add to cart”buttons of the product portions of FIGS. 3A and 3B. In the illustrationof FIG. 4, the “Add to cart” button of two product portions 412A, 412Bhas been updated to “Remove,” permitting the user to remove any of thoseitems from the “shopping cart” for the “express purchase.” The screenimage 400 of FIG. 4 also includes an items indicator showing the numberof items selected for purchase and presently in the “shopping cart.”

FIG. 5 is an illustration of a screen image 500 of an exemplary orderconfirmation page displaying the product items selected by the consumerfrom a collection of product items specifically chosen forrecommendation to the consumer based on personal information of theconsumer, and the payment and fulfillment/delivery information, inaccordance with the present disclosure. In a representative embodimentof the present disclosure, the payment and fulfillment/deliveryinformation may not need to be entered, as the same information may beprovided automatically based upon the nature of the product items andfulfillment options selected by the user, e.g., for a prior order. Thisenables the user to quickly make product item selections that relatespecifically to them based upon, among other things, their past purchasehistory and their shopping behavior, and make an “express order” or“express purchase” of items which they may have forgotten, but which anembodiment of the present disclosure provided as recommendations uponcompletion of an earlier order.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of a screen image 600 of an exemplary shippinginformation page showing the products that have been selected by theconsumer from the products chosen for recommendation to the consumer,and various shipping options, in accordance with the present disclosure.The products selected by the user may be identified from a collection ofproducts chosen for the user based on personal information of theconsumer such as, among other things, their past purchase history, userpreferences, and their shopping behavior. As described above, the userhas the option of keeping the fulfillment/delivery and payment optionsor, as in the additional options illustrated in FIG. 6, changing thedelivery speed, if the selected product items meet certain conditionsrequired for an “express purchase” in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of a screen image 700 of an exemplary shippinginformation page showing the speed of delivery options available for oneof the products selected by the consumer from the collection of productsselected for recommendation to the consumer, in accordance with thepresent disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 7, the selection of the “Wantit sooner?” link shown in the screen image 600 of FIG. 6 results in thedisplay of different delivery date choices from that resulting from thestandard or default fulfillment/delivery means that may have beenselected by the user for prior orders in the order history.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of a screen image 800 of an exemplary shippinginformation page reflecting an update in delivery date and the cost ofshipping chosen for a product for which the consumer chose to change thefulfillment/delivery means, in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of a screen image 900 of an exemplary orderreview page showing the products selected by the consumer, the change inuser choice of a delivery/fulfillment for one of the selected products,and a “Place order” button that allows placement of an order for theadditional products items selected by the consumer from the recommendedproducts, in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 shows a screen image 1000 of an exemplary order confirmationpage 1000 illustrating a carousel displaying product information for aset of four products 1012A, 1012B, 1012C, 1012D chosen from a newlyselected collection of products chosen for recommendation to theconsumer based on updated personal information of the consumer such as,for example, their most recent purchase history following the placing ofan “express purchase,” in accordance with the present disclosure. If theuser chooses to select a product from those displayed, a new purchaseflow in accordance with the present disclosure may begin, and a newcollection of products for recommendation to the user may be chosenbased on, by way of example and not limitation, the most recent productpurchase history and shopping behavior information.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of a screen image 1100 of an exemplary orderreview page showing a security pop-up window requiring confirmation ofpayment means and payment validation code/PIN information, followingexpiration of a period of time of consumer inactivity since the priororder was placed during this online session, in accordance with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 12 is an illustration of a screen image 1200 of an exemplary orderreview page showing a security pop-up window requiring confirmation ofpayment means and payment validation code/PIN information, followingexpiration of a period of time of consumer inactivity since the priororder was placed during this online session, in accordance with thepresent disclosure. In the example of FIG. 12, the user is provided withhelpful information on how to find the payment validation code/PIN onthe payment card of choice.

FIG. 13 is an illustration of a screen image 1300 of an exemplary orderreview page showing a pop-up window requesting confirmation of a userrequest to cancel the current order, in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating a personal electronic device1400 that may correspond, for example, to electronic devices 20′, 20′,20″ shown in FIG. 1, in accordance with a representative embodiment ofthe present disclosure. The personal electronic device 1400 maycorrespond to electronic user devices such as, by way of example and notlimitation, a smart phone, a tablet computer, a cellular phone, a mediaplayer, a handheld personal computer, a laptop, a notebook computer, anetbook computer, a desktop computer, a television, or any othersuitable electronic device having the functionality discussed herein.

As shown in FIG. 14, the personal electronic device 1400 includes aprocessor 1410, an RF transceiver A 1402, an RF transceiver B 1403, awired interface 1404, a display device 1420, a user input device 1430,an audio interface 1440, and a memory 1450. The processor 1410 may be,for example, a suitable microprocessor or microcomputer havingsufficient computing power to control the personal electronic device1400, and is operably coupled to the RF transceiver A 1402, the RFtransceiver B 1403, and the wired interface 1404. The RF transceiver A1402 and RF transceiver B 1403 may comprise any necessary circuitry,logic, and software/firmware for wireless communication over any of, forexample, the cellular, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (e.g., IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac),Zigbee, WiMAX, or any other wireless network known now or in the future.The wired interface 1404 may comprise any necessary circuitry, logic,and software/firmware for wired communication over any of, for example,an Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus, FireWire (IEEE 1394) or other wirednetworks known now or in the future.

The processor 1410 is also operably coupled to the memory 1450, and maybe used for non-transitory storage of executable program instructions,parameters, and data for any of the circuitry of the personal electronicdevice 1400. The display device 1420 is also operably coupled to theprocessor 1410, and may comprise, for example, one or more LED, OLED,LCD, or other form of visual display capable of presenting text orgraphics, and may comprise any circuitry, logic, or software/firmware tosupport, for example, a graphical user interface (GUI). The user inputdevice 1430 may comprise, for example, suitable switches, buttons, ortouch sensitive surfaces to enable user control and operation of thepersonal electronic device 1400, and may comprise any necessarycircuitry, logic, and software/firmware to allow it to perform thosefunctions. In a representative embodiment of the present disclosure, theuser input device 1430 may be a touch sensitive surface at the viewingside of the display device 1420, enabling a user to use the touchsensitive surface of the display device to enter user inputs and respondto displayed information. The audio interface 1440 comprises anynecessary circuitry, logic, and software to interface a microphone 1405and a speaker 1406 to the processor 1410.

Aspects of the present disclosure may be seen in a method of operating asystem for using personal information of a consumer to identify andrecommend product items for purchase following placement of a priororder. Such a method may comprise, in a computer system configured tocommunicatively couple with communication devices of a plurality ofconsumers, for each of the plurality of consumers, maintainingcorresponding personal information comprising shopping behaviorinformation, purchase history information, order fulfillmentinformation, and means of payment information. The method may comprise,in response to a specific request of one of the plurality of consumers,adding one or more product items to a first order for the one of theplurality of consumers; and responsive to an explicit request to placethe first order of the one of the plurality of consumers, selecting afirst set of product items from a plurality of additional product itemsaccording to a respective value assigned to each of the plurality ofadditional product items, wherein the value assigned to each of theplurality of additional product items is representative of a likelihoodof purchase of the respective product item by the one of the pluralityof consumers.

A method in accordance with the present disclosure may also comprisecommunicating product information for each of the first set of productitems to a communication device of the one of the plurality ofconsumers, for display; and responsive to the one of the plurality ofconsumers, processing at least one of the first set of product items asa second order for the one of the plurality of consumers, according toone or both of order fulfillment information and means of paymentinformation for the one of the plurality of consumers. The selecting maycomprise analyzing the personal information corresponding to the one ofthe plurality of consumers to assign the value corresponding to each ofa plurality of additional product items. The selecting may also compriseanalyzing the personal information of others of the plurality ofconsumers to determine a level of similarity with the one of theplurality of consumers.

In some representative embodiments of the present disclosure, the secondorder may be processed according to one or both of the order fulfillmentinformation and the means of payment information chosen by the one ofthe plurality of consumers for the first order. Processing the secondorder may comprise updating the personal information of the one of theplurality of consumers according to the first order, and communicatingproduct information for each of a second set of product items to thecommunication device of the one of the plurality of consumers, fordisplay. Communicating product information for each of the second set ofproduct items may comprise analyzing the personal informationcorresponding to the one of the plurality of consumers to assign arespective value to each of a second plurality of additional productitems, where the value assigned to each of the second plurality ofadditional product items is representative of a likelihood of purchaseof the respective product item by the one of the plurality of consumers.Communicating product information for each of the second set of productitems may also comprise selecting the second set of product items fromthe second plurality of additional product items, according to thevalues assigned to each of the second plurality of additional productitems. The method may use a shopping cart model.

Additional aspects of the present disclosure may be found in anon-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon aplurality of instructions executable by at least one processor of acomputer system configured to communicatively couple with communicationdevices of a plurality of consumers. In such an embodiment, theplurality of instructions may cause the at least one processor toperform the actions of a method of operating a system for using personalinformation of a consumer to identify and recommend product items forpurchase following placement of a prior order, and the actions maycomprise those of the method described above.

Yet other aspects of the present disclosure may be observed in a systemfor using personal information of a consumer to identify and recommendproduct items for purchase following placement of a prior order. Such asystem may comprise at least one processor for communicatively couplingwith communication devices of a plurality of consumers, and the at leastone processor may be operable to, at least, perform the actions of themethod described above.

Although devices, methods, and systems according to the presentdisclosure may have been described in connection with a preferredembodiment, it is not intended to be limited to the specific form setforth herein, but on the contrary, it is intended to cover suchalternative, modifications, and equivalents, as can be reasonablyincluded within the scope of the disclosure as defined by thisdisclosure and appended diagrams.

Accordingly, the present disclosure may be realized in hardware,software, or a combination of hardware and software. The presentdisclosure may be realized in a centralized fashion in at least onecomputer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elementsare spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind ofcomputer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methodsdescribed herein is suited. A typical combination of hardware andsoftware may be a general-purpose computer system with a computerprogram that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computersystem such that it carries out the methods described herein.

The present disclosure may also be embedded in a computer programproduct, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation ofthe methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer systemis able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the presentcontext means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of aset of instructions intended to cause a system having an informationprocessing capability to perform a particular function either directlyor after either or both of the following: a) conversion to anotherlanguage, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different materialform.

While the present disclosure has been described with reference tocertain embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the artthat various changes may be made and equivalents may be substitutedwithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In addition,many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation ormaterial to the teachings of the present disclosure without departingfrom its scope. Therefore, it is intended that the present disclosurenot be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed, but that thepresent disclosure will include all embodiments falling within the scopeof the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of operating a system for using personalinformation of a consumer to identify and recommend product items forpurchase following placement of a prior order, the method comprising: ina computer system configured to communicatively couple withcommunication devices of a plurality of consumers, for each of theplurality of consumers, maintaining corresponding personal informationcomprising shopping behavior information, purchase history information,order fulfillment information, and means of payment information;responsive to a specific request of one of the plurality of consumers,adding one or more product items to a first order for the one of theplurality of consumers; responsive to an explicit request to place thefirst order of the one of the plurality of consumers, selecting a firstset of product items from a plurality of additional product itemsaccording to a respective value assigned to each of the plurality ofadditional product items, wherein the value assigned to each of theplurality of additional product items is representative of a likelihoodof purchase of the respective product item by the one of the pluralityof consumers; communicating product information for each of the firstset of product items to a communication device of the one of theplurality of consumers, for display; and responsive to the one of theplurality of consumers, processing at least one of the first set ofproduct items as a second order for the one of the plurality ofconsumers, according to one or both of order fulfillment information andmeans of payment information for the one of the plurality of consumers.2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the selecting comprises:analyzing the personal information corresponding to the one of theplurality of consumers to assign the value corresponding to each of aplurality of additional product items.
 3. The method according to claim1, wherein the selecting comprises: analyzing the personal informationof others of the plurality of consumers to determine a level ofsimilarity with the one of the plurality of consumers.
 4. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the second order is processed according toone or both of the order fulfillment information and the means ofpayment information chosen by the one of the plurality of consumers forthe first order.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein processingthe second order comprises: updating the personal information of the oneof the plurality of consumers according to the first order; andcommunicating product information for each of a second set of productitems to the communication device of the one of the plurality ofconsumers, for display.
 6. The method according to claim 5, whereincommunicating product information for each of the second set of productitems comprises: analyzing the personal information corresponding to theone of the plurality of consumers to assign a respective value to eachof a second plurality of additional product items, wherein the valueassigned to each of the second plurality of additional product items isrepresentative of a likelihood of purchase of the respective productitem by the one of the plurality of consumers; and selecting the secondset of product items from the second plurality of additional productitems, according to the values assigned to each of the second pluralityof additional product items.
 7. The method according to claim 1, whereinthe method uses a shopping cart model.
 8. A non-transitory computerreadable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructionsexecutable by at least one processor of a computer system configured tocommunicatively couple with communication devices of a plurality ofconsumers, the plurality of instructions to cause the at least oneprocessor to perform the actions of a method of operating a system forusing personal information of a consumer to identify and recommendproduct items for purchase following placement of a prior order, theactions comprising: for each of the plurality of consumers, maintainingcorresponding personal information comprising shopping behaviorinformation, purchase history information, order fulfillmentinformation, and means of payment information; responsive to a specificrequest of one of the plurality of consumers, adding one or more productitems to a first order for the one of the plurality of consumers;responsive to an explicit request to place the first order of the one ofthe plurality of consumers, selecting a first set of product items froma plurality of additional product items according to a respective valueassigned to each of the plurality of additional product items, whereinthe value assigned to each of the plurality of additional product itemsis representative of a likelihood of purchase of the respective productitem by the one of the plurality of consumers; communicating productinformation for each of the first set of product items to acommunication device of the one of the plurality of consumers, fordisplay; and responsive to the one of the plurality of consumers,processing at least one of the first set of product items as a secondorder for the one of the plurality of consumers, according to one orboth of order fulfillment information and means of payment informationfor the one of the plurality of consumers.
 9. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the selectingcomprises: analyzing the personal information corresponding to the oneof the plurality of consumers to assign the value corresponding to eachof a plurality of additional product items.
 10. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the selectingcomprises: analyzing the personal information of others of the pluralityof consumers to determine a level of similarity with the one of theplurality of consumers.
 11. The non-transitory computer-readable mediumaccording to claim 8, wherein the second order is processed according toone or both of the order fulfillment information and the means ofpayment information chosen by the one of the plurality of consumers forthe first order.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readable mediumaccording to claim 8, wherein processing the second order comprises:updating the personal information of the one of the plurality ofconsumers according to the first order; and communicating productinformation for each of a second set of product items to thecommunication device of the one of the plurality of consumers, fordisplay.
 13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according toclaim 12, wherein communicating product information for each of thesecond set of product items comprises: analyzing the personalinformation corresponding to the one of the plurality of consumers toassign a respective value to each of a second plurality of additionalproduct items, wherein the value assigned to each of the secondplurality of additional product items is representative of a likelihoodof purchase of the respective product item by the one of the pluralityof consumers; and selecting the second set of product items from thesecond plurality of additional product items, according to the valuesassigned to each of the second plurality of additional product items.14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 8,wherein the method uses a shopping cart model.
 15. A system for usingpersonal information of a consumer to identify and recommend productitems for purchase following placement of a prior order, the systemcomprising: at least one processor for communicatively coupling withcommunication devices of a plurality of consumers, the at least oneprocessor operable to, at least: for each of the plurality of consumers,maintaining corresponding personal information comprising shoppingbehavior information, purchase history information, order fulfillmentinformation, and means of payment information; responsive to a specificrequest of one of the plurality of consumers, adding one or more productitems to a first order for the one of the plurality of consumers;responsive to an explicit request to place the first order of the one ofthe plurality of consumers, selecting a first set of product items froma plurality of additional product items according to a respective valueassigned to each of the plurality of additional product items, whereinthe value assigned to each of the plurality of additional product itemsis representative of a likelihood of purchase of the respective productitem by the one of the plurality of consumers; communicating productinformation for each of the first set of product items to acommunication device of the one of the plurality of consumers, fordisplay; and responsive to the one of the plurality of consumers,processing at least one of the first set of product items as a secondorder for the one of the plurality of consumers, according to one orboth of order fulfillment information and means of payment informationfor the one of the plurality of consumers.
 16. The system according toclaim 15, wherein the selecting comprises: analyzing the personalinformation corresponding to the one of the plurality of consumers toassign the value corresponding to each of a plurality of additionalproduct items.
 17. The system according to claim 15, wherein theselecting comprises: analyzing the personal information of others of theplurality of consumers to determine a level of similarity with the oneof the plurality of consumers.
 18. The system according to claim 15,wherein the second order is processed according to one or both of theorder fulfillment information and the means of payment informationchosen by the one of the plurality of consumers for the first order. 19.The system according to claim 15, wherein processing the second ordercomprises: updating the personal information of the one of the pluralityof consumers according to the first order; and communicating productinformation for each of a second set of product items to thecommunication device of one of the plurality of consumers, for display.20. The system according to claim 19, wherein communicating productinformation for each of the second set of product items comprises:analyzing the personal information corresponding to the one of theplurality of consumers to assign a respective value to each of a secondplurality of additional product items, wherein the value assigned toeach of the second plurality of additional product items isrepresentative of a likelihood of purchase of the respective productitem by the one of the plurality of consumers; and selecting the secondset of product items from the second plurality of additional productitems, according to the values assigned to each of the second pluralityof additional product items.